[tonyhawk]

How did everyone do with their predictions?

East
1 - Caps in 5
2 - Flyers in 6
3 - Sabres in 7
4 - Pens in 6

West:
1 - Sharks in 5
2 - Hawks in 6
3 - Nucks in 7
4 - Wings in 5

Strictly win/loss, 2/4 in the East and 4/4 in the West. Counting series length, only 2/8 overall.

Round 2 predictions anyone?

East:
1- Pens over Habs in 6
2- Flyers over Bs in 7

West:
1- Wings over Sharks in 5
2- Hawks over Canucks in 7

 

[wiscodh]

Didnt play last round, but west woudla been 4/4 east 1/4.....

East:
1- Pens over Habs in 6
2- Flyers over Bs in 6

West:
1- Wings over Sharks in 7
2- Hawks over Canucks in 5


wings pens for 3 straight

 

[kickstand]

How did everyone do with their predictions?



Strictly win/loss, 2/4 in the East and 4/4 in the West. Counting series length, only 2/8 overall.

Round 2 predictions anyone?

East:
1- Pens over Habs in 6
2- Flyers over Bs in 7

West:
1- Wings over Sharks in 5
2- Hawks over Canucks in 7

East
Pens
Bruins

West
Wings
Canucks

Finals
Wings
Pens

Pens for a repeat

 

[kingbee]

If the Pens win it all again I will run down my street naked and screaming.

 

[HAB]

If we count win/ loss only, East 2/4, West 2/4. If I have to get series lengths right, I got 1 in the East.

 

[JohnE]

East:
Habs over Pens (Upset of the season!)
Bruins over Flyers (This one will be bloody!)

West:
Wings over Sharks (Another blood fest...)
Hawks over Nucks (Gotta stay w/ my boys!)

 

[JohnE]

If the Pens win it all again I will run down my street naked and screaming.

Go Habs!

 

[kingbee]

Go Habs!

Don't make me drop my gloves...

Your goalies voodoo magic can't keep up, he has to let some by eventually! Or at least I'm hoping.

 

[JohnE]

I am just hoping to avoid you having to go streaking...

 

[jsg04]

I have a feeling that the Sharks are going to make it past the second round this year. Heatley and Thorton have to wake up. They had no goals and something like 5 assists combined in the first series.

 

[eric strt6]

and the Sharks take game one over the Redwings 4-3

GO SHARKS

 

[kingbee]

The wings sure don't look anything like the team that got to the finals the last two years. I keep predicting the wings to win because I keep waiting for them to shape up. Maybe they wont!

 

[MMcG]

The wings sure don't look anything like the team that got to the finals the last two years. I keep predicting the wings to win because I keep waiting for them to shape up. Maybe they wont!

One thing to remember is that the Wings didn't have much time to rest between series and they played back to back road games with that little bit of rest as well.

We'll see.

The Sharks still have a lot to prove to a lot of people.

 

[kickstand]

One thing to remember is that the Wings didn't have much time to rest between series and they played back to back road games with that little bit of rest as well.

We'll see.

The Sharks still have a lot to prove to a lot of people.

I agree, but other than the first 10-15 minutes of hockey the wings played a pretty solid game. As a wings fan I wasn't overly concerned with their play last night, and felt they did a good job of keeping it close and staying in the game, they just couldn't get that extra boost they needed.

I am not 100% sure the wings WILL win this series, but I am confident they will play well and make it tough for San Jose.

 

[JohnE]

Hawks v. Nucks is getting mega press coverage. Should be a nail biter and a hair puller!

Kick, why does it sound like all the Wings fans are hedging their bets right now? "We may not win, but we will give them a great series" talk is all around. Have you guys lost confidence? Until Babs pulls Howie, I still say you are team to beat. Deep, talented and experienced...

 

[MMcG]

Who's going to emerge from the East?

Pittsburgh has to be the big time odds on favorite now don't ya think?

So Miller is done, Brodeur history.

Halak has been hot, but doesn't have a huge playoff resume
Boucher? Can he keep it going?
Nabokov - over-rated big time
Howard - rookie
Luongo - over-rated even more than Nabokov
Niemi - unproven in the playoffs
Rask - young and relatively unproven

Which team left has the best goaltending left?

Could it be Marc Andre Fleury? He has taken his team to back to back cup finals after all.

Or could the Canadiens ride a fairly young hot goalie all the way to the cup finals as they did with Dryden and then with Roy???

We shall see and it should be fun to do so!!!

 

[kickstand]

Hawks v. Nucks is getting mega press coverage. Should be a nail biter and a hair puller!

Kick, why does it sound like all the Wings fans are hedging their bets right now? "We may not win, but we will give them a great series" talk is all around. Have you guys lost confidence? Until Babs pulls Howie, I still say you are team to beat. Deep, talented and experienced...

I think we are trying to be realistic. I mean if you read most of my comments on this thread I haven't been overly confident in them as a team, but have felt they would try and find a way to pull stuff out.

I guess what I am saying is that I "think" they can beat san jose, but I am not 100% confident they WILL beat San Jose.

They have been very good and very dominant for a long time now, it can not last forever, and i just don't know that with as old as the "red wings" are (ie, draper, maltby (who hasn't even played), lidstrom, holmstrom, osgood, etc.) that it may finally be time to pass the torch. Then again I could be wrong, maybe they can step it up like they did in game 7 and be the dominant red wings again.

I'm also not your prototypical sports fan who thinks there is no way that anyone can beat his team, especially like a lot of wings fans who think we are just the best no matter what.

I appreciate that you still think the wings are the team to beat, and in reality we are, we have owned the western conference for years, but I just fear we are nearing the downswing of our dominance unless we've got some great prospects who are going to move in that I don't know about.

Just trying to be realistic.

 

[Jozz]

Go Habs!

 

[Inclag]

Who's going to emerge from the East?

Pittsburgh has to be the big time odds on favorite now don't ya think?

So Miller is done, Brodeur history.

Halak has been hot, but doesn't have a huge playoff resume
Boucher? Can he keep it going?
Nabokov - over-rated big time
Howard - rookie
Luongo - over-rated even more than Nabokov
Niemi - unproven in the playoffs
Rask - young and relatively unproven

Which team left has the best goaltending left?

Could it be Marc Andre Fleury? He has taken his team to back to back cup finals after all.

Or could the Canadiens ride a fairly young hot goalie all the way to the cup finals as they did with Dryden and then with Roy???

We shall see and it should be fun to do so!!!

Wrote this up a little while ago during towards the end of round 1 play.

Best goalie left in the playoffs?? Eh, that may be a hard one.

Tukka has played well, but the Bruin's defensive scheme is definitely the best of all the teams left in the playoffs. I'm not trying to take anything away from Tukka, but Miller was by far the best goalie in my mind for the 1st round. It's a shame that he's not with another organization.

Niemi, nope. I really don't feel the need to dignify this with any reasoning.

Luongo - Has always had erratic issues with net depth and rebound control IMHO. But, when he's on, he can be a brick wall.

Naby - Eh, his angles have been off a good bit this year. Especially the 2nd half of the season.

Boucher - I'll be honest, he's really been the only guy I haven't seen much of lately, so I'm not going to jump to any conclusions or evaluation of him.

MA Fleury - Insane tools and skillset, but has terrible technical lapses.

Howard - Has been picked apart in the playoffs. Seems to have happy feet, hunching when down and not staying upright enough, and is too far in the back of the net. I thought he was pretty darn good when I saw him in the regular season, and I think that the Wings have been playing some uncharacteristically poor team defense these playoffs, so I'm unsure anyone could succeed under the circumstances

Theodore - Rebounds anyone?

Varlarmov - I think could compete with Niemi for worst/lowest butterfly form.

Halak - I think this guy is pretty darn good. I think he can be left a little high and dry by his team, but technically and skill-wise he's up there with the best young netminders. I'm glad to see that he's finally pulling away from that guy Price.

Bryzgalov - Has been a stud throughout the entire season, but I think that he seems to have issues blocker side.

Hmmm, after typing this out quickly, maybe this isn't too hard to determine. I guess at the moment it's a 3 pony race, with Tukka, Halak, and Bryzgalov being the goalies at the moment.

If I was asked to pick the goalies that would be most likely to single-handedly steal a game, I'd actually be inclined to say Luongo, MA Fleury, or Halak.

 

[X3pilot]

Go Habs!

5 let through tonight and pulled in the 3rd.

NOW he decides to let goals in.

(too be fair, he had to be pretty beat after the Caps series)

 

[MMcG]

Maybe Halak should have been given a rest - but hindsight is 20/20 right?

Now who gets the start in Game 2?

I wonder what the extent of the Staal and Markov injuries is?

 

[JohnE]

...gotta go w/ Halak. Habs didnt give him alot of support. Prices days in Montreal are numbered.

 

[MMcG]

I'd go with Jaroslav in Game 2 - but maybe they should have rested him in Game 1 and given Price a chance to try and "steal one."

 

[splat]

Bruins Take Game 1 in OT

Bruins Looked Really Good in the OT. and its really good to get Savard Back.

 

[narlus]

Bruins Looked Really Good in the OT.

understatement of the year so far. i can't believe that game didn't end in the 1st two minutes of OT.

 

[JohnE]

Savard looks like he didnt miss a beat...

 

[JohnE]

But the Hawks, on the other hand...need to bring back Burish and Eager, get some aggression and energy going for next game.

 

[Peacock]

after years of lamenting my love for the canucks, they are finally looking pretty good. I'm not going to say that they are going to beat chicago, I've played in enough hockey games to know that one game proves nothing, but they looked pretty good yesterday.
Pittsburgh won't fall apart without J Staal, he is an invaluable part of that team, but they've got enough complete players top-to-bottom in that lineup that they'll be OK.
Markov's out indefinitely, so I'm going to go ahead and say Montreal is dead in the water. with their number one d-man they might have been able to come back from a slammer loss like game one, but not now. Halak's confidence will be nowhere near what it has been, so unless Camalleri can make miracles happen, the Habs are done.
my two cents for now

 

[MMcG]

Wow - the Blackhawks got spanked!

 

[brungeman]

staal is out... suposedly the skate blade of Subban cut through the top of his skate and lacerated the top of his foot. He underwent a procedure to repair a tendon on the top of his foot.
they say he may be back... I doubt it. imagine trying to lace a skate up over a surgically repaired foot! OUCH!

 

[Ridemonkey.com]

staal is out... suposedly the skate blade of Subban cut through the top of his skate and lacerated the top of his foot. He underwent a procedure to repair a tendon on the top of his foot.
they say he may be back... I doubt it. imagine trying to lace a skate up over a surgically repaired foot! OUCH!

yeah sucks for the Pens
I remember Kyle Chipchura had a really bad severed achilles because of a skate blade when he was in the ohl, pretty impressive that he managed to come back from that. Bieksa also lacerated his achilles this year, but not as bad as chipchura did.
maybe bauer/nike and reebok etc. ought to get together and come up with something to prevent this type of thing. look for a product review on that soon

 

[jsg04]

staal is out... suposedly the skate blade of Subban cut through the top of his skate and lacerated the top of his foot. He underwent a procedure to repair a tendon on the top of his foot.
they say he may be back... I doubt it. imagine trying to lace a skate up over a surgically repaired foot! OUCH!

They said that he is day to day, but man I don't know. I guess that means his 358 consecutive games is no more.

 

[stevew]

i miss...

 

[JohnE]

yeah sucks for the Pens
I remember Kyle Chipchura had a really bad severed achilles because of a skate blade when he was in the ohl, pretty impressive that he managed to come back from that. Bieksa also lacerated his achilles this year, but not as bad as chipchura did.
maybe bauer/nike and reebok etc. ought to get together and come up with something to prevent this type of thing. look for a product review on that soon

I skated shinny with some guys today who had inserts over their tongues to prevent such a thing. It was a neoprene/sorbathane sort of thing...

 

[Peacock]

I skated shinny with some guys today who had inserts over their tongues to prevent such a thing. It was a neoprene/sorbathane sort of thing...

hmmmm... pronger and a couple of other dudes use a piece of hard plastic strapped on the outside for shot blocking but I've never seen a neoprene guard. think it would do much good?

on an unrelated note...I suppose my bashing of Halak's confidence looks quite foolish now....38 saves and only one goal later. I honestly didn't expect that, especially after the early goal (the necessary output from Camalleri was there though!!)

 

[JohnE]

Sorbathane has some pretty good impact absorption qualities...but I dont think these guys guards will last long or give really good impact protection. More of a slash guard than a shot blocking thing. Definitely would not have prevented Staals injury. That was pretty much a freak thing. They are made and marketed here in SoCal...so I didnt give them much of a thought. But they do come in designer colors...

 

[eric strt6]

GO SHARKS

yeah baby 4-3 over the Wings and a 2-0 lead in the series

 

[MMcG]

hmmmm... pronger and a couple of other dudes use a piece of hard plastic strapped on the outside for shot blocking but I've never seen a neoprene guard. think it would do much good?

on an unrelated note...I suppose my bashing of Halak's confidence looks quite foolish now....38 saves and only one goal later. I honestly didn't expect that, especially after the early goal (the necessary output from Camalleri was there though!!)

I think he (and the entire Habs team) needed that extra rest. They were spent after Game 7 against the Capitals and it showed. Their defense is pretty thin right now with Markov and Spacek out, but damn that Subban is playing really well for them! And he's only 20 years old.

Sharks did what they needed to do in Games 1 and 2 that's for sure.

 

[kickstand]

red wings

 

[MMcG]

red wings

yeah but they go back home for 2 games.

I could easily see this series going 7 games.